A Hanseatic in the Chancellery – Handelsblatt Morning Briefing

“His tone of voice is monotonous, his body language is very bad” – new Chancellor Olaf Scholz had to put up with such bad-tempered criticism from abroad at the beginning of his term in office. You still need something to get used to the Hanseatic politician type. There is no grace period anyway, as we show in our cover story. This is how the economy says Veronika Grimm: “Without a significantly higher vaccination rate, the situation will not be able to be brought under control” – for which we have assigned a real Bundeswehr general. And Jutta Allmendinger, President of the Science Center Berlin, explains: “The big question is whether it will be possible to shape climate policy as a driver for economic development and innovation.” A couple of things stood out yesterday:

  • Scholz did it like Gerhard Schröder and renounced the reference to God in the oath of office, the religious affirmation formula “So help me God”. Some ministers followed suit, in line with the Basic Law: “There is no state church”.
  • Apart from Scholz, parity has been reached: eight female ministers face eight ministers. “Factor W” now applies in top departments such as foreign policy, home affairs and defense.
  • The new traffic light ministers all came to the meeting with the Federal President by car, which does not necessarily have to be understood as a commitment to the ecological and social market economy. Only the Green Minister of Agriculture, Cem Özdemir from the Greens, actually came by bike, supported by an electric motor.

Big with celebrations of the new government responsibility wasn’t. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is about to go on a journey. Today she first meets her French colleague Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris, then she goes on to Brussels to see Josep Borrell, EU representative for foreign and security policy, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

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On Friday, Poland is on the travel plan, there will be meetings with Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and the ombudsman Marcin Wiącek, who looks after Poles who are dissatisfied with the work of their own authorities. “You can rely on Germany”, announced Baerbock, that the EU will continue to be “the linchpin” for Germany.

US President Joe Biden has just completed a video summit with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, when he turns up the sound control. If Russia attacks Ukraine, said Biden, the US would hit back with sanctions “like he has never seen them before”. In the era of economic wars, the European Union does not want to stand back and stand out as a toothless tiger.

Brussels has rediscovered the deterrent logic of the Cold War – and, if the worst comes to the worst, wants to respond to sanctions with sanctions. You are sending a clear signal, says Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-Head of the EU Commission: “The European Union will not hesitate to strike back if we are threatened.”

Property and entry bans are conceivable, but also customs duties. The European Parliament welcomes the plan, the member states still have to agree. In an interview with Handelsblatt, Dombrovskis says about …

  • Threats to the rule-based world order: “This instrument is there to protect us when a third country breaks international rules. It’s a defensive tool. “
  • Example in practice: “Lithuania is currently faced with the situation that China is restricting trade due to certain political decisions with regard to Taiwan. That is a case that would certainly justify support through the anti-sanctioning instrument. “
  • Impending US sanctions over Nord Stream 2: “This is a very complex and still quite theoretical case. But I can say: the pipeline is not in line with the goals of European energy policy. “

Conclusion: Confucius thought a little differently: “Demand a lot from yourself and expect little from others. This will save you trouble. “

Frank Appel has been CEO of Deutsche Post since 2008, a record for the year that is only exceeded by Sartorius and the local CEO Joachim Kreuzburg in the DAX, but this company has not been in the upper league of the stock market for so long. But now it should be over for the long-term postman, albeit not until May 4, 2023. Then parcel director Tobias Meyer will take over.

Post CEO Frank Appel is to become chief inspector of Deutsche Telekom.

For this exit date, Apple’s contract will be extended by another six months. The manager, who once came from McKinsey, is apparently also willing to take over the chairmanship of the supervisory board at Deutsche Telekom in April 2022. In earlier times, both Bonn Dax companies belonged to what was then the Deutsche Bundespost, the state remained as an anchor shareholder in both of them, much to the grief of the new governing party, the FDP. With Appel’s double job, the old days greet you again, no trace of independence, which is why seasoned German fund managers leave a lot of protest notes.

The real estate crisis is not simply an ailment in China. The crash of the Evergrande group, which has been celebrated for years and which simply can no longer cope with the promised payments, symbolizes the imbalance of an entire market. After all, the construction and housing industry accounts for up to a third of the gross domestic product of the People’s Republic. “The time to earn money with real estate is over”, is the headline of our big report from an emergency zone.

Provincial governments once made a lot of money selling land to real estate developers who financed themselves with more and more debt in the construction boom. Now you sink there together. In 2016, President Xi Jinping proclaimed a wisdom that SPD politician Hans-Jochen Vogel has always propagated in this country: “Houses are there to live, not to speculate.”

The heavily indebted real estate developer Evergrande seems insolvent as things stand. (Photos: ap (2), Imago, Unsplash, Reuters)

And then there is Julian Reichelt, 41, who almost two months after being kicked out as “Bild” editor-in-chief feels the urge to go public again, which brought a big interview to the weekly newspaper “Zeit”. He did not lie to the Springer Group about his mess with an employee, says the journalist, who fell over women’s stories. With regard to CEO Mathias Döpfner, he adds: “That’s why I was very surprised at how surprised he was. The bottom line is that I was kicked out because of my relationship. “

After 20 years of loyal work, ten of them in war zones, it was disposed of over the phone in 20 minutes. He doesn’t want to do PR in the future, “but journalism for the masses”. He loves to give millions of people a strong voice: “Julian Reichelt is not a picture, but: Julian Reichelt was a picture. What this brand represented was based on my work, my thoughts. “
Conclusion: And so, enthusiastic about the nature of self-adulation, we light the third candle on the Advent wreath a little early.
I wish you a bright day.

I warmly greet you
you
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor

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